Conquering the Emperor

Chapter 177: Pressure

Instead, I wrapped a robe around myself before heading towards the door to see what was going on. Slowly, I slid the door open a crack to see a nervous-looking maid standing in front of my bedroom door.

“Good morning, what is it that you need?” I asked politely.

“Umm...excuse me, My Lady...but there’s an urgent message from the emperor to the crown prince...” the maid said before she bowed low and extended the letter in her hand towards me.

I opened the door wider so that I could reach out for the letter. After taking it in my hand, I told the maid that she could leave and thanked her. She seemed very relief to be excused. My attention immediately went to the letter that was in my hand. It must be something urgent...

Quickly, I returned to the bed and nudged softly on Ren’s shoulder. If it’s a letter from the emperor, then I should give it to Ren as soon as possible. It could be something very urgent about work and I was afraid that Ren would get into trouble if he didn’t respond. Perhaps, the emperor is even summoning him.

“Ren...” I called his name softly.

“Hmm...” Ren made a noise, but he didn’t wake up.

I sighed. Usually, Ren didn’t really like to sleep in like this. He was dutiful and worked very hard for his empire and his people. However, today was different...

“Ren...wake up. The emperor sent you a letter. I think you should see it,” I said, trying to sound calm.

Suddenly, the letter was swiftly snatched from my hand. I blinked in astonishment at my now empty hand. Ren had snatched the letter away so fast that I had missed it. However, he wasn’t reading the letter at all. After taking the letter away, Ren turned away from me and continued sleeping with a very carefree attitude. ƒгeewebnovёl.com

“Umm...Ren...Ren...” I called his name as I shook his shoulder.

I don’t think this is the time for him to be sleeping.

“Stop. I’ll get up now...” Ren said sleepily before he sighed loudly.

“Hang in there...” I said as I patted his shoulder when he sat up in bed.

His hands impatiently tore at the letter before he hastily unfolded the paper. His eyes narrowed at the message before it widened.

“What is it? Is something...wrong?” I asked hesitantly.

Ren seemed trouble and that worried me. I hoped that nothing serious had occurred. I watched as Ren folded the letter away before he got out of bed.

“Are you leaving?” I asked. freewēbnoveℓ.com

“Yes...and you’re coming with me,” Ren replied as he stood up and stretched.

“Huh? Me?” I asked in apparent surprise.

“Yeah...according to this, the emperor wants to see us both...” Ren said as he shook the letter at me.

“What?!” I exclaimed. This time I was completely shocked.

Nothing good had ever happened whenever the emperor summoned for me. I could bet my life that this time it wouldn’t be any different. I closed my eyes and took in a deep breath to prepare myself. I already had a pretty good idea what the meeting was going to be about.

...

“It’s good that you two are here. No need for formalities because I don’t want to waste any time. Sit,” the emperor said the moment that Ren and I walked into the room.

To my surprise, along with the emperor and the empress, Prince Kin and Lady Mimi were there as well. I felt immediately comfortable when I saw Prince Kin in the room. Ren must have sensed my discomfort became he placed his hand at the small of my back as if he wanted to reassure me that everything is alright.

Wordlessly, we took the last two empty seats in the room. I held my breath as I waited for the emperor to start speaking. I couldn’t tell from the emperor’s expressionless face, but I could tell from the empress’s distressed expression that both of them were not in the best of moods.

“You heard the dowager empress last night, didn’t you? She’s applying more pressure now for you two to produce an heir,” the emperor said getting right to the point.

I knew it. This is happening because of what the dowager empress said during her birthday gala last night. Glancing over at Ren, his calm face told me that he had already anticipated this. Perhaps that was why he was so slow in getting up this morning.

“I thought you would have expected her to say something like that. Honestly, I don’t understand why you’re so shocked about this...” Ren said with a shrug.

“You’re able to say things like this because you left soon after. I was stuck there with her until the end of the gala. Throughout the entire event, she kept pressuring me and blaming me for the fact that you two have not managed to make a baby!” the emperor roared in frustration.

I didn’t know what face to make in the face of his outburst and apparent distress. Admittingly, I found half of the matter quite funny and entertaining. I mean, I knew it was a big deal about the heir and all; however, I never knew that the emperor was so scared of his own mother. That was what I thought was funny about all this.

“She’s always been like that. She’ll calm down soon enough...” Ren said without worry.

“It’s been a long time since Lady Kamiya was promoted to Lady White Lotus...” the empress said with a thoughtful face.

I felt her eyes on me and I avoided meeting her eyes. Well, if they thought that Ren and I had been sleeping together since our supposedly first night together then I could understand why they thought that his baby-making project was taking a while. Not that I could ever tell them that.

“It’s been a long time if we assume that they’ve been physically engaged since the first night that they spent together. However, if that was not the case then...” Prince Kin said as his eyes narrowed at his own brother.

I felt my blood run cold at his words. It can’t be. He...doesn’t know, does he? I could still remember the plan that Ren had devised on that night and how I was somehow forced to go along with it.

--To be continued...